The company today lowered the Board of Ed’s rating to BB+, from BBB-, nearly two months after Moody’s Investors Service also stripped the board of its investment grade rating. Today’s downgrade comes after Chicago Public Schools already saw its cost to borrow climb in April amid the uncertainty created by a federal investigation and a looming annual budget deficit of more than $1 billion.

The action adds to the challenges confronting Forrest Claypool, whom Mayor Rahm Emanuel named this month as chief executive of the school system.

“The downgrade reflects the limited progress the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has made in addressing a structural budget gap approximating 20% of spending,” the statement says. As a result, “the district is highly dependent on borrowing in the upcoming months to finance on-going operations,” according to the statement.

One amendment at a time, Democrats are revealing their demands for a year-end budget deal.

Backed by veto threats from President Obama, Senate Democrats are refusing to allow votes on spending bills that do not lift the budget caps under sequestration. Democrats in the House are also refusing to cooperate.

But even as they have criticized the GOP spending bills as a waste of time, Democrats have participated in the committee markups of the legislation.

During each of those sessions, Democrats offered amendments that would provide more money to various programs and agencies — effectively giving the GOP a roadmap of their spending priorities.